12 Lessons Learnt After One Month Travelling in Thailand

Believe it or not, is already one month since we left our comfort zones, broke our habits and opened our eyes wide to discover a new life in Thailand. When you change where you have been living for a while to a place you know only from images, videos, blogs and travel guides, I guess you will feel the same – excitement and fear, happiness and anxiety all in one.

However, once you put your feet on the road, all the illusions are gone and what you face are images and situations that are not mentioned in travel guides. These are ones that you enjoy (or not) observing on your own. Simply said, all is real and relative at the same time.

A fruit stall in Chiang Mai market, Thailand.

Here are our brief reflections on daily life situations we have experienced during our one month travelling in Thailand:

1. Fewer mosquitos than expected

Hold on, “fewer” means there are still some, but so far, citronella incense sticks and natural repellent have helped to keep bugs attacks under control.

2. Mind your head

If you are taller than 1.65 cm (5′ 5″), then take this warning seriously. Particularly while walking on the streets among the sunshades or roofs of the stalls and shops. Also, watch out for wooden sticks peeking out from the bottom of carton posters hanging on the street light poles.

‘Watch your head’ sign in Bangkok, Thailand.

3. Honking transport is harmless

When you walk on the street and you hear from behind a car, a motorbike or a tuk-tuk honking vigorously, do not panic and jump away from the spot where you are. Here in Thailand, a sound of honk means “hey, mate, I can give a paid ride!” rather than “move out of the way, dude!” as we might be used to from western culture. Of course, if you are crossing the road at a red light and there are cars around, you had better run to save your life.

A tuk-tuk in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

4. Ice is safe

Despite many warnings we found online or in guidebooks, to have a fruit shake or juice with ice is absolutely fine, with no side effects for your stomach.

5. Burning mouth

An expression like “a bit spicy” does not exist here. When ordering your food, do not ask for “just a bit of chili”. Your “little bit” is far away from their “little bit”. To keep your mouth safe, it is better to ask “no spice, please”. Then you might use your favourite amount of chili from the jar that is always available.

Chilli being sold at Chiang Mai market, Thailand.

6. Thai trees are multi-functional

Here the trees serve not just to grow fruits, sustain a bird nest or to provide oxygen, but also as a holder for fans, neon lamps or an electrical socket! No kidding. Thais use trees in all possible ways, no matter if that tree is dry and rotten. The important thing is if it can hold the weight of a piece of plastic or metal.

An electric socket attached to a tree in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

7. Sugar, sugar, sugar

Thai people use sugar basically everywhere: in soups, in meat dishes, in rice dishes, in smoothies, juices, too. On the other hand, be ready to find salt in typically sweet things like ice cream and some cakes.

A street food vendor using lot of sugar on food. Chiang Mai, Thailand.

8. Street food can be tedious

If selected mindfully, you can enjoy an amazing mixture of new textures, flavours and tastes. On the other hand, if eating only street food, it becomes quite repetitive after some time.

9. Smiles

What goes around, comes around. 99% of Thai people smile back when you smile at them. 1% of non-smiling people are, strangely, the majority of Buddhist monks and some random people.

Our friend Tom, a fruit vendor in Chiang Mai market, Thailand.

10. Less busier, more cheap

While doing fruits and veggies shopping at the street markets, it is always better to walk around before buying. It’s guaranteed that on a small side street next to the busier market you find cheaper stuff of the same quality, sometimes even less than half of the price of goods on the “main” street of the market.

11. Edible decoration

What we grow and care about in our vegetable gardens and fields in Europe, here they use as a decoration. We are talking about zucchini plants, which grow everywhere and produce beautiful yellow flowers to admire.

Zucchini flowers growing as a decoration bush in Thailand.

12. We are all humans

Oh, yes, we are, so do not forget to close your open mouth after you see a Buddhist monk smoking or eating chips here.

What about your “lessons” from being on the road? Have you experienced any unexpected cultural situations? Please leave a comment below.

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Ivana is a travel writer and digital nomad. She encourages others to travel independently and mindfully. When she is not working for this travel website, she is tasting pu-erh tea around the world and learning Italian so she can read Tiziano Terzani’s books in the original language.

No. 3 -Honking transport- reminded me that in India it has another meaning “I’M here !!!”. There, because it’s so crowdy, drivers close their side mirrors and concentrate only in front, and on the sides and back they count on the comming drivers to honk theit presence . Funny rules though 🙂

Yes, yes, yes 🙂 Absolutely agree about everything, and especially about sugar. One other thing that surprised me in Chiang Mai in winter: the weather. It is way more colder than I expected and some nights were positively freezing. I guess while reading/researching I just could not believe that it could be true and dismissed any mentioning as an exaggeration of those who lived in tropics all their lives – it can not be cold anywhere in Thailand, right?, but it is.

Hi, Elena, thanks for commenting. You are very right, one could really freeze last weeks in Chiang Mai. Especially in the morning and early eve it was pretty cold. From what we have heard, this “winter” season was very unusual for the area. Anyway, it is definitely coming back to hot days so let’s enjoy! Have safe trips, guys

Lovely blog BUT, a blanket statement that ice “fine” is dangerous. Ice will only be “fine” if the drinking water is fine. Freezing does not kill bacteria, protozoa or viruses(it does kill some parasites)

Hi Martin, Sure, quality of water determines the safety. But speaking about Thailand in the post, and also after having been in Thailand for five months now, we can say that we never had an issue with that 🙂

Great post Ivana. Great advice. We never saw the power points on the trees. I learnt about the spicy part very early in our travels. Jarryd loves spicy food so he had 2 dishes that day. We are a big fan of the fruit and veggies everywhere there too. We do miss that. Thank you for sharing.

I know what you mean by passing a meal to your other half, Gianni can tell you about it 🙂 We do love Thai fruits and cannot imagine other breakfast than a plate of fresh fruits. Hope you can have some fruit delicacies in Vietnam, too!

Hi Jane! Hmmm, we have quite different experience with both. I guess it depends on which area of Thailand you travel to. We usually got pad thai in the north, west, BKK and southern islands without any problem. And smile from the locals too 🙂

Haha the spice bit made me laugh. I never mess around too much with spice but cazzie is a bit more adventurous. He learned his lesson quick though! Thanks for sharing, we’re headed back to Thailand for our 2nd time in a week.

Now they are used to non-spicy foreigner taste more, I guess, and they giggle when we tell them “not spicy”. You can always say “mai phed” (means “not spicy”), and is pronounced as “my pet” in English 🙂 Happy travels, and if you are around Chiang Mai, let us know 🙂

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